To Hedge or Not to Hedge

Posted on April 8, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

Last week, Bloomberg presented a fascinating story about Mexico’s secretive oil hedging program. We noted that while it was designed as a hedge, the Mexican government has made money consistently with it. If anything, recent results have made the Mexican government look especially good. The country earned $6.4 billion in …

How Will IFRS 9 Affect Financial Institutions?

Posted on April 6, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

In a previous post we discussed how IFRS 9 will affect commodity firms through hedge accounting programs. Generally speaking, as pointed out by Thack Brown in this post, IFRS 9 will affect financial and non-financial corporates through: 1-New classification and measurement principles for financial assets, 2- New impairment models that …

Relationship Between Credit Default Swaps and Equity Options

Posted on April 3, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

After an increase in volatility, equity markets seem to be going back into the state of calmness. Additionally, with Easter coming up, volume and volatility are expected to remain low, at least for a couple of weeks. However, beside the equity world, the credit market is experiencing a tightening as …

Hedging in the Mortgage Backed Securities Market Can Increase Volatilities

Posted on March 28, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

Equity markets were relatively calm after the US election. The recent weeks, however, have seen some increase in volatility. Is this just a blip or the start of a volatile period? Nobody knows the exact answer. But Gregory Meyer et al of FT.com reported that there are firms, notably DRW, …

Hedging Should be Based on Risks and Not on Forecasts

Posted on March 23, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

A common belief among commodity producers, importers and exporters is that hedging should be based on analysts’ expectations. Hence, they often attend meetings where they expect to hear forecasts from analysts and experts. For example, Ed White recently wrote Meeting halls at farm conferences are packed when the market analysis …

Should We Buy VIX Futures When The Spot VIX is Low?

Posted on March 20, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

With the VIX being so low, many investors believe that now is the time to go long volatility. This belief mainly stems from the mean reversion property of the VIX. However, we should note that The speed of mean reversion in the low volatility regime is slower than it is …

Why Is VIX So Low and What To Do About It?

Posted on March 17, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

At the close of today, the VIX finished at 11.23%, so on the surface everything seems to be calm and normal. However, the low VIX is making some investors nervous. Why is the VIX so low? In this post Dani Burger , Cecile Vannucci , and Liz McCormick cited some reasons …

Now Is The Time to Hedge, But The Cost of Insurance Can Be Expensive

Posted on March 13, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

At the beginning of the year, as the markets reached new highs, investors became more complacent. Early this month, Rupert Hargreaves noted: Investors have plowed billions into stocks over the past few months while the generally positive sentiment within markets has helped pull central banks back into the shadows. Central …

What Is a Contingent Convertible Bond and How to Price It ?

Posted on February 14, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

About a year ago, the financial world witnessed another “Lehman moment”. It was the “near collapse” of Deutsche Bank (DB). The financial press quickly pointed out the main reason for DB’s plunging stock price. John Glover wrote Yield-starved investors bought $102 billion of the contingent convertible bonds, securities created to …

Do Derivative Accounting Rules Make Sense?

Posted on February 3, 2017 By Harbourfront Technologies

As a firm with emphasis on risk management, we always advise our clients to hedge their portfolios in order to reduce the PnL volatilities. However, recently Metlife, the largest insurer in the US, was hit by a $3.2 billion loss in derivatives that were used to hedge the rising interest …